Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
58 1 He describeth the malice of his enemies, the flatterers of Saul, who both secretly and openly sought his destruction, from whom he appealeth to God’s judgment, 10 Showing that the just shall rejoice, when they see the punishment of the wicked to the glory of God.
To him that excelleth. Destroy not. A Psalm of David on Michtam.
1 Is it true? O [a]congregation, speak ye justly? O sons of men judge ye uprightly?
2 Yea, rather ye imagine mischief in your heart: [b]your hands execute cruelty upon the earth.
3 The wicked [c]are strangers from the womb: even from the belly have they erred, and speak lies.
4 Their poison is even like the poison of a serpent; like the deaf [d]adder that stoppeth his ear.
5 Which heareth not the voice of the enchanter, though he be most expert in charming.
6 Break their [e]teeth, O God, in their mouths: break the jaws of the young lions, O Lord.
7 Let them [f]melt like the waters, let them pass away; when he shooteth his arrows, let them be as broken.
8 Let them consume like a snail that melteth, and like the untimely fruit of a woman, that hath not seen the sun.
9 [g]As raw flesh before your pots feel the fire of thorns: so let them carry them away as with a whirlwind in his wrath.
10 The righteous shall [h]rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the [i]blood of the wicked.
11 And men shall say, [j]Verily there is fruit for the righteous; doubtless there is a God that judgeth in the earth.
3 God calleth his people unto repentance. 14 He promiseth the restitution of his Church. 20 He reproveth Judah and Israel, comparing them to a woman disobedient to her husband.
1 They [a]say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return again unto her? shall not this land [b]be polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many [c]lovers: yet [d]turn again to me, saith the Lord.
2 Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and behold, where thou hast not played the harlot: thou hast sat waiting for them in the ways, as the [e]Arabian in the wilderness: and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms, and with thy malice.
3 Therefore the showers have been restrained, and the [f]latter rain came not, and thou haddest a [g]whore’s forehead: thou wouldest not be ashamed.
4 Didst thou not still cry [h]unto me, Thou art my father, and the guide of my youth?
5 Will he keep his anger forever? will he reserve it to the end? thus hast thou spoken, but thou doest evil, even more and more.
6 The Lord said also unto me, in the days of Josiah the King, Hast thou seen what this rebel [i]Israel hath done? for she hath gone up upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.
7 And I said, when she had done all this, Turn thou unto me: but she returned not, as her rebellious sister Judah saw.
8 When I saw, how that by all occasions rebellious Israel had played the harlot, I cast [j]her away, and gave her a bill of divorcement: yet her rebellious sister Judah was not afraid, but she went also and played the harlot.
9 So that for the [k]lightness of her whoredom she hath even defiled the land: for she hath committed fornication with stones and stocks.
10 Nevertheless for all this, her rebellious sister Judah hath not returned unto me with [l]her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord.
11 And the Lord said unto me, The rebellious Israel hath [m]justified herself more than the rebellious Judah.
12 Go and cry these words toward [n]the North, and say, Thou disobedient Israel, return, saith the Lord, and I will not let my wrath fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not always keep mine anger.
13 But know thine iniquity: for thou hast rebelled against the Lord thy God, and hast [o]scattered thy ways to the strange gods under every green tree, but ye would not obey my voice, saith the Lord.
14 O ye disobedient children, turn again, saith the Lord, for I am your Lord, and I will take you one of a city, and two of a tribe, and will bring you to Zion,
The Epistle of Paul to Titus
1 6 He showeth what kind of men ought to be chosen Ministers: 10 how vain babblers’ mouths should be stopped: 12 and through this occasion he toucheth the nature of the Cretans, 14 and the Jews, who put boldness in outward things.
1 Paul [a]a [b]servant of God, and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s [c]elect, [d]and the acknowledging of the truth, which is according unto godliness.
2 Unto the [e]hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, hath [f]promised before the (A)[g]world began:
3 [h]But hath made his word manifest in due time through the preaching, which is (B)committed unto me according to the commandment of God our [i]Savior:
4 [j]To Titus my natural son according to the common faith, [k]Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
5 [l]For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest continue to redress the things that remain, and shouldest ordain Elders in every city as I ap-pointed thee.
6 (C)If any be unreproveable, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, which are not slandered of riot, neither are [m]disobedient.
7 [n]For a Bishop must be unreproveable, as God’s [o]steward, not [p]froward, not angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre,
8 But harberous, one that loveth goodness, [q]wise, righteous, holy, temperate,
9 [r]Holding fast that faithful word according to doctrine, [s]that he also may be able to exhort with wholesome doctrine, and convince them that say against it.
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